"Halt!"
Riki and I quickly took positions at a hidden tree still covering ourselves to not be seen by anyone in the area as what looked like the head of the palace guards approached the front of the crowd first.
"Halt, what is a large group of you all doing here?"
The Princess was the only one without a mask as the leader of the royal guard, a much larger middle aged woman approached the front of the crowd.
"Are you all some sort of cult? That is not permitted in this kingdom, at least without a license to pay your taxes for it. May we see a license?"
"Ma... Maya?"
The Princess stood up walking towards the royal guard.
"Maya is that you?"
She glanced briefly at the very short haired Princess.
"I don't know how you know my name child, but yes, that is my name. Maya Natami, leader of the palace guards of Riguo, 25 years of service and counting. Now if you will excuse me..."
"Yeah, I know who you are. So stuck up as usual Maya... Do you even know..."
But before she could continue, the other palace guards surrounded the princess staring at her angrily.
"Hey, what are you doing! Don't come closer, do you know who I am? I'll..."
They put a cloth over her mouth so she couldn't talk.
"Silence child, peasants should not speak when people of much higher positions like ourselves are in the vicinity."
She took out what looked like a baton from her pocket and hit the princess square in the shin knocking her down. I could see tears forming in the Princess's eyes as she fell down. It took a lot of self control and Riki holding me back for me not to go up and speak my mind on the situation. But he was right though as he shook my head, now was not the time to do such a thing.
Maya turned to the rest of the people of the theater.
"Now then... if you all don't wish to be battered as well, I best be seeing a license for your activities soon. Who is your leader? If no one will step forth, then we have the right to treat you all as criminals of the kingdom allowing us to do whatever we want to you."
The crowd all stood there in silence backing away from the Princess who was pleading to talk and explain everything.
"No one?" she said, staring up and down the crowd. "you're all going to be imprisoned together if that's the case you know... so let's see how long your little cult bond lasts after..."
"I'm the leader," a familiar voice said, stepping forward. A masked figure on the shorter side but even behind the mask, one could see her beautiful flowing hair.
"I'm the leader," Kaisaki replied again, removing her mask this time, "my apologies for leaving without notice Maya, but this is the truth of what I have been doing."
The palace guards gasped upon seeing her face.
"Prin... Princess."
Kaisaki smiled, walking directly up to Maya.
"Indeed it is I, in the flesh. Please Maya, can you..."
"Did these bad people kidnap you! Oh... you poor thing."
As if not to hear any of Kaisaki's words, Maya dismounted from her horse going in to give Kaisaki a big hug.
"Oh Princess, I was so worried, I thought I would never see you again!"
The royal palace guards all gathered around Kaisaki who did not flinch in her performance. I could see from a distance even the Princess in awe as Kaisaki's vocal tone and mannerisms began to match that of the Princess almost identically.
"Where have you been, young lady, you are in big trouble."
"Soo… sorry." Kaisaki replied, suddenly becoming meek just as the Princess had in her public appearances before.
"I…I saw these people here had really cool masks, and…"
She looked as if she was going to break down in tears.
"I couldn't help but join! Oh Maya, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to abandon you, I missed you so much."
She did her best attempt to imitate the Princess's pouting face and although I couldn't, in good conscience, say it was as good, it certainly was close enough to be convincing to those who never really closely knew the princess.
"Oh… you poor thing," Maya said, giving her a head pat. "It's alright it's alright, you're safe now, get in."
Kaisaki did as instructed, taking Maya's hand and sitting on the back of the horse.
"Wait but… what about my friends?" Kaisaki asked, she turned to the rest of the people of the theater and then back at Maya.
"They informed me my father placed a 5 million Cive bounty to return me to the kingdom. Surely they are to be rewarded for being the ones to return me here, no?"
Maya looked over at the people of the theater, then back at Kaisaki, then back at the people of the theater.
"Hell no,"
"..."
"..."
"..."
Everyone else silenced as Maya looked at the people of the theater crowd coldly.
"They're damn lucky we're not rounding everyone up and doing a mass beheading."
She looked back at the Princess.
"You as well Princess are about to take a stern grounding when you return home. How can you do something so stupid as to just run away like this? What do you all do.? Just wear masks to feel more in a cult?"
"Uhhh… actually they're actors and actresses!" Kaisaki said with a smile, "They're people of the traveling theater you see! We go around from town to town giving performances to the locals!"
Maya looked over at the other palace guards and then back at Kaisaki, and then back at the other guards again before they all simultaneously broke into laughter.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Travelling theater, oh, that's a new one."
"What… what's so funny?"
"People of the traveling theater my ass, there's no money in that hahahahaha. More like bums of the traveling food kitchen. What kind of performances do you even put on? Cult heist stories?"
The palace guards all continued to laugh looking at the people of the theater pretentiously.
"Whatever, you can do whatever you want, I'm getting my share of the bounty when we return you to the castle."
"Wait what?!" Kaisaki screamed, "no, you can't do that. The people of the theater are the ones who need the money! You crook, when I get back…"
"When you get back, your father isn't going to give a damn about what happened or why you even left in the first place. Accept it Princess… you're nothing more than a political tool. A foolish one at that."
Before Kaisaki could escape off the horse again, the other palace guards surrounded her and tied her to the horse. They covered her mouth with a cloth as well just as they had with the Princess so she couldn't speak.
"Yo hold on," Ahmed said. Even behind his mask I could hear his voice as he stepped forward.
"You can't just take someone against their will. That's the same as kidnapping, we won't have it."
The people of the theater began surrounding the royal palace guards attempting to wrestle the Princess back. Their attempts however, were quickly countered when the palace guards began to draw their swords.
"You bums really want to fight?" Maya asked sadistically. She took a drink from what looked and smelled like a whiskey flask on her belt gulping down almost a quarter of the flask at once before drawing her sword. She wasn't a bad looking woman by any means, but the way she was now with disheveled hair and absolute bloodlust in her eyes as she licked her sword, looked like something out of a horror book.
"Your blood will taste nice if we really fight you worthless scums."
The crowd, too scared now, all backed down in unison leaving Kaisaki isolated with the psychopath.
"That's what I thought," Maya said, drawing her sword back in and returning to her normal levels of sadist smile, "You cowards wouldn't know how to save a princess even if the world depended on it. Go back to your little play pretend theater you bums. We're the real deal, the real elites of society unlike you all. Come on, let's get our bounty, we don't have time for this."
The other palace guards nodded as they began riding away from the people of the theater with Kaisaki to claim their reward. Next to me I could see Riki fuming in rage. Quite the sight for such a normally calm man. In fact, on one hand I could see a large rock. His eyes stared directly at the palace guard leader as they began riding away, looking as if at any moment, he would launch the rock directly at him.
And to be honest, feeling his rage, I wanted him to. It felt so unfair in that moment, that authority figures could act so corruptly in what they do. Not that it's surprising of course, I had been on the streets long enough to know how corrupting having power does to people. But to see it done in real time, so egregious and so proudly by Maya and the prison guards, really made my blood boil as well.
And especially knowing the emotional ties Riki had with Kaisaki, I couldn't even imagine what was going through his head. If this was a magical fairytale story, then narrative wise it would make perfect sense for him to throw the rock as well. And then we'd get into a fight where somehow we would make our dramatic escape.
But if life really was a fairytale like that, then it wouldn't be life at all. Or rather… perhaps we wouldn't have a life at all. But even so, as a man who loved performances and great narratives more than anything, it was most surprising to me, when Riki simply dropped the rock as the palace guards disappeared.
"It's not worth it…" he said, sighing.
I looked at him blinking.
"What isn't?"
"Risking everyone's safety."
Safety however, seemed to not be the only concern, as soon after the royal palace guards were a good distance away, the people of the theater began whispers of panic.
"Shit, what do we do?"
"Yeah, we have to rescue Kaisaki now, no?"
"Rescue my ass, we need fucking money."
"I was relying on that bounty money to feed my family."
"Yeah, I don't know if I can do this theater thing anymore. As cool as it is… we really are going to be starving bums at this rate."
"Yeah, I'm returning this mask to Riki."
"Riki my ass, we don't know where the fuck Riki is."
"Shit, you're right, what do we do?"
As the people of the theater began whispering about the personal problems again, I could see Riko was still there tied up.
"That said, the time is now for us to make our entrance, shall we?" Riki said, before running towards his people of the theater.
"Wait what?" I said, following behind, "Whatever… not like I have a choice."
"People of the theater, people of the theater, fear not for I have returned!"
The crowd gasped when they saw Riki and I running towards them from a distance.
"Ri… Riki?"
"Yes indeed, it is I in the flesh! Your leader of the theater," he said, going in front of the crowd and taking a bow.
"I see my people have run into a bit of trouble, there seems to have been a problem with your little coup plan, no?"
"Ummm uhhh…"
The crowd began whispering innocently, none really wishing to speak of the fact that they had just abandoned Riki only 2 weeks ago. Well… everyone in the crowd except the Princess who was of course looking at me. And I, back at her. I wanted to run to her right away, but given that she was already safe, it didn't seem right to interrupt Riki's speech.
"Do not worry, do not worry, for it is quite alright that you all did your little coup on me." Riki said smiling, 'For it is the 'people of the theater' after all. And you all have every right to criticize me for not being a good leader of it. So I do not care about your coup, in fact I think it is in the spirit of what it means to be in the theater."
The crowd just looked at him oddly not knowing how to respond.
"Yeah… you were turning a bit greedy towards the end."
"... that said!" Riki said with an eye twitching. "I see that I am still necessary for operations of this theater to run properly. Mr. Hu here and I had been observing your movements closely and your little trade Kaisaki in as the princess plan did not work at all. Or rather…"
He motioned me towards the Princess as I quickly went over to untie her.
"Hu, what the fuck, were you stalking us the whole…"
' "Shh… not now princess," I said, shushing her, "Let Riki cook."
"Or rather," Riki continued, "It worked perfectly, you simply received no monetary benefit for your actions, no?"
"Yeah! But that was the whole point!" a new member of the theater shouted, "we wasted all this time and got our hopes up for nothing… not a single Cive."
"Oh…" Riki said smirking, "so it is about money after all you hypocrites! Is that really the reason you all joined the theater? You all criticized me for hoarding the money we made, but I put those funds to good use. It's not like I individually spent them for many personal things!"
The crowd as a collective lowered their heads in slight shame realizing his words to be true.
"Yeah… I suppose we are hypocrites," the same member from before said, "I just wanted to taste a little wealth okay! To go to places and eat foods that normal people wouldn't be able to! Is that too much to ask?"
"Yeah," one of the other members said, "it's nice playing the role of a rich person within the theater, but it's definitely different experiencing it in reality."
Several of the members all nodded in unison.
"We're sorry though Riki, we can't really blame you for how you handled the funds."
Riki smiled, putting his hands in fists on his waist.
"Fear not however, people of the theater! For even though that is true, I will not abandon you. In fact…"
He stared over at myself and the Princess. Instinctively, I shielded the princess.
"Don't get any funny ideas Riki, the Princess is coming with me to anywhere after this."
"Wait what Hu…"
The princess began blushing not being able to form any words of protest.
"Don't even think about returning her to the palace!"
Riki smiled, walking towards me.
"Don't worry, I don't have any such plans to do so."
He leaned down to look at the still nearly bald princess.
"Not like your own palace guards were able to recognize you anyway."
He stood back up walking back towards the crowd.
"Nope, it will have to be an actress instead, who plays your role in the next performance."
"What?"
I looked at him with a puzzled look.
"What are you talking about, next performance?"
"It's exactly as I said," Riki replied, "an idea that just struck me like lightning you could say Hu."
He turned to the crowd, "we are going to put on our next play!"
The crowd whispered briefly amongst themselves after hearing those next words.
"Umm… okay, and how are we going to afford that?"
He smiled, looking over at me and the Princess again.
"The same way you, Hu Shuliu, has recently. We're going to heist the palace goods."
The Princess and I blinked at the suggestion.
"And how do you plan to do that?"
"Oh come now Hu, don't be surprised, that's what you and the Princess did for months, no? I'm sure work was a lot easier when the upfront cost was effectively nothing."
"Okay yeah… but that's after a while with Riko after we formed an established bond and routine. What, you're going to ask Kaisaki to steal goods for you? How do you plan on reaching her first?"
As I said that he began reaching into his pocket.
"I mean, I'm sure she's more agile than the Princess so she'll be able to escape easier. But still, you need a way to communicate with her."
He began taking the object in his pocket out.
"It sounds like a good plan in theory. But even so, you need to establish a link and…"
"And?" He said smiling as he took out a round pre-rolled object.
"...?"
He laughed.
"Hu, I keep at least 4 of these on me at any given time. You think your hole with the Princess is long, you haven't even begun. She's not the only pervert the "Fujoshi Perception" effects will take hold of. In fact, the link of the "Fujoshi Perception" blunt says just as much about who is observing, as it does who is being observed. And for me that can only be one person, one star of the show."
"Wait what…" the Princess said, growing increasingly irritated. "Hu, what is he talking about?"
I darted my eyes back and forth whispering innocently.
"Uhhh…"
"Who gives a damn, what's the next performance on Riki?"
Luckily, one of the people of the theater interrupted me so I did not have to explain myself yet.
"Yeah, and more importantly, how the fuck are we getting paid?"
"Yeah, you better not rip us off with your % of the profit shit again."
"Yeah! That's definitely a scam when you use the 'profit' for the next performance."
"Yeah! We demand fair wages."
The mob began turning on Riki again as they closed in on him.
"Do not worry, do not worry!" Riki replied hastily, "for this next performance, I will be paying you all a flat rate of 200 Cive for anyone that joins, further income and bonuses however, will be determined by how much profit we make. That seems fair and incentivizes you all to give your best performances. If you do not like these terms, you are free to leave the theater as I said."
The crowd whispered amongst themselves.
"Hmm… that seems a bit low."
"Yeah, but it's better than nothing."
"True, even though that's lower than a horse carriage transporter makes, we can survive at least."
"Yeah but… this is still not what I expected when I joined."
"Yeah, it's not, but are you really going to quit now?"
"Wait, I have a question, Riki."
One of the theater members stepped up. He looked to be on the smaller side, possibly only a teenager based on how his voice sounded though I couldn't know for sure behind his mask.
"What is this next performance even on?"
"I'm glad you asked young man," Riki said leaning down to face him, "The performance will be on the events that just occurred tonight along with some backstory and similar things as they relate to political and authoritative corruption. I'll have the script written within a week, and we'll do our usual process of holding tryouts on who gets to star in the show before giving a performance on it in Riguo. Don't worry, they'll be a role for everyone though. Those not a part of the main cast will be part of the crowd of everyday men and women like yourselves that witness the corruption of institutional leaders on a daily basis."
"That sounds… pretty meta Riki. Are you sure we can pull it off?"
"It's only meta to us, young man, because it is a retelling of our own lives. To the people who witness the performance for the first time… it will simply be a performance that exposes the corruptness of the leaders within our society. Do you understand?"
The young man thought about this for a moment.
"You said 200 Cive flat rate of payment right?"
"That is correct."
He thought for a bit longer before smiling and extending his hand.
"Alright well… that's more than I would get as a shop assistant, I'm in!"
"Me too,"
"Yeah, sounds interesting enough, let's do it."
"This should fund my drug addiction!"
The mood of the crowd began to shift as the members began huddling around Riki. In fact from my count, almost everyone seemed to want to join in on the new performance for one reason or another.
"Alright alright, let's take it one step at a time," Riki said, stepping back, "I'll pay you once the tryouts are finished, for now though, why don't we find an inn nearby to stay at."
"Yeah, sounds good."
"Yeah, I'm pretty tired from sleeping on the ground all the time."
"You're paying, right Riki?"
They began to get up and walk in unison again.
"Uhhh… yeah, about that," Riki said.
The crowd groaned but still, none of them wanted to leave.
"If you can't afford it, sleep on the ground next to the inn, we have numbers, and the innkeepers will be annoyed and just give us a giant group discount to let us all in." Riki exclaimed as they continued walking. As he did, he turned to I and the Princess one last time.
"You joining us?" he asked, "we're staying right here in Riguo to put on the performance you know. You won't have to…"
"Definitely not then," the Princess replied. I looked at her surprised.
"Wait, hold on Princess, it might not be a bad idea to…"
"I'm not staying in Rigou, not after…"
Tears were forming in her eyes.
"Not after what I just witnessed."
The crowd and everyone else went silent as the words left the Princess's mouth. Maybe it was my eyes tricking me, or my own personal bias, but it appeared as if the light of the moon in that moment was shining down on her giving her the sole spotlight. Sure, she didn't carry the same natural aura Kaisaki did, but for how she grew up, and how she was before, it was no less amazing to see the conviction of her words.
"I'm never going back to a place so corrupt." she exclaimed again. "They… they didn't act like this before! No… Maya she…"
She looked as if she was going to cry.
"She was my friend. Or at least she was good at pretending she was. But one shaving of my head and she doesn't even recognize or acknowledge me."
She looked up at me giving me a hug.
"Are people really that fickle Hu?"
I couldn't answer her as she continued to cry into my arms. Mostly because my answer to that wasn't what she probably wanted to hear. Because the reality is… yes, people do tend to be fickle not just in their personality, but in what they deem important. Relations that you thought for years meant something could in just a week, mean absolutely nothing. I had experienced this already when I left my home for the first time, and most of my friends were not bothered to say goodbye.
"Only if they wish to be Riko," I replied instead, hugging her tight, "it's always a choice."
"You won't be though, right?" Riko asked, "You won't leave me again will you Hu? I…"
She let go of me looking down at the ground.
"I was so scared. If you really had been stalking us as Riki said, then you could see that I was acting quite normally with the people of the theater, right?"
"It did look like you were having fun." I said smiling, "I didn't really feel like bothering you to be perfectly hon…"
She slapped me gently.
"That is not what I meant!"
She said turning away.
"I was scared…" I could hear her whisper softly.
"I was scared because I thought I'd never see you again."
I blushed violently, more than I had probably ever in my life as the words left her mouth.
"Oh uhh…"
"I thought you would be fickle too! Like Maya just now and the friends you had told me about. I thought maybe you wouldn't care for me anymore now that you had no reason to. I was just…"
She looked at me.
"I was just so scared, you would leave me alone again like everyone else. That I would never be able to talk to the man I shared all the stories I had read with."
The moonlight shined down on both of us as we stared into each other's souls. It had been over 5 years since I had even kissed a girl. But at that moment, the opportunity really did seem too perfect to not take advantage of. So as the Princess leaned her precious pretty face into me. I leaned my in as well and…
"Ewwww, PDA gross!" one of the members of the theater said, "What the hell, do this in private you pervs."
"Yeah what the fuck, I'm not trying to see that."
"Riki, you were just saying we were going to an Inn right?"
"Huh, what?"
I turned to see RIki who had been observing us closely with a smile. As if he could feel the romantic energy in the air along with us. The question brought him back to his business mode though.
"Oh uhh yeah yeah… we have to do that. Yeah don't worry, I know these streets pretty well, there should be a place called the Kaosa Inn up ahead. Let's just go there."
"Good… all this happiness is making me cranky about my own love life. Let's leave so I don't have to think about it anymore."
"Yeah true! Agreed!"
The crowd began walking away from us leaving just the Princess and I together now alone. For those observant enough to wonder about the horse carriage, I had mine parked still at the port which we would probably have to walk back to retrieve at some point. But that was the last thing on my mind at the moment as I stared into the Princess's opal eyes.
"So…" I said to her,
"So?" she said blushing, being fully aware what I was about to attempt to do had the people of the theater not interrupted.
"What do we do now?"
She looked back up at me leaning her face close. Am I imagining things or did she want me to kiss her at this moment too. As she leaned closer, she closed her eyes and puckered her lips. It was really the most beautiful scene and perfect opportunity to lean in and do what I had secretly imagined doing for about 7 months now. Still though…
As I looked at her precious face shining brightly under the moonlight, as much as I wanted this to be the moment of our first intimate physical connection, I also knew that the best things in life come when one is patient. That one should savor moments like this, and stretch them throughout spacetime so that one always has something to look forward to. Fickle you may think, as just a moment ago, it was I who was leaning in my face closer in anticipation. But that's being human I suppose. Not that I was fickle in my commitment, that was perhaps at this point, the only thing I was not fickle on. Rather that I was fickle, when I thought the timing of things were correct. You only get one first kiss with the one you love after all.
No, I thought, reaching into my pocket. There was something else that was better suited for the Princess's oral fixation at the moment. Something that will help us plan not just one adventure, but a series of adventures that hopefully last throughout a lifetime. She really was that precious to me. Not just her as she existed now, but her as she existed not just in the present, but the past and future as well. All the parts of her that were her in the kingdom and while she read her books, and all the parts of her she will ever be, with or without me there. Though of course, I almost always preferred the version when she was with me.
Talking about nothing, just for the sake of talking. And smiling, and making memories, and doing whatever nonsense normal people do in this nonsensical world. So it was not my lips that I put against her mouth that night. But instead something that I had already in my pocket.
"Huh?"
The Princess took a step back when the taste of chocolate hit her taste buds.
"Wait, this is…"
"This blend is called Starry Explorer." I said, taking out the full bag of Kush kandies and showing the Princess its name. "It's said that people that take it will suddenly wish to ask a good number of questions about the universe!"
"What, Hu…." the Princess complained, chewing the chocolate and tugging on my sleeves.
"That's not what I wanted, I was trying to…"
"Trying to what?" I said slyly as I took out a candy eating it myself. The Princess blushed profusely, turning away.
"No… nothing dumbass whatever."
One can never really hide from it when they are born with the 'cute' attribute.
"So Hu… what now? You have a plan right?"
I blinked looking at the Princess as we began walking down the road. I made sure we were heading towards the direction of my carriage to be efficient about things.
"What do you mean?" I said smiling, "aren't we just going to do what we always do?"
She sighed, not even bothering to look at me. Even so, I could still see her smiling as she looked up at the moon.
"Fine, whatever you dumbass procrastinator. You're lucky I'm used to it now. Really though, we should go to Kuhan."
"I'll need to see if we have the budget for that…" I replied suddenly remembering that I had not made a single dime from this whole excursion after leaving the gold bar still at the pawn shop. Well, not that it really mattered all too much. We had enough to survive for now, and that's what mattered. The rest of the story, of course… as I'm sure dear readers have figured out by now…
"But it's fine," I said to her as she began to pout again, "We can go there if you really want to in the future! Anything is fine really… as long as you're with me… we can just…"
I turned, looking up at the moon as well before saying with her in unison.
"Make it up, as we go."